The intelligent sports analysis of a soccer ball (also known as football, football ball, or association football ball) requires accurately simulating its motion and finding the best design parameters. Employing classic mechanics, this book establishes a fundamental framework for the soccer ball multi-body dynamics modeling, virtual prototype simulation and optimization design. It presents 3D virtual prototypes to predict the soccer ball trajectory for soccer players and trainers. Five typi...

The challenge of standardising social work education remains a much-discussed but under-documented issue, particularly in developing and less-developed countries. Existing literature often emphasises the need for student-centred learning but lacks a comprehensive examination of how students can shape curricula, lesson plans and teaching methods in cooperation with educators.This edited volume brings together leading scholars from across the Global North and South to explore the co-...

This book gives a comprehensive review on thermal metamaterials, an emerging type of artificial structures designed for the control of heat transfer. To date, many exciting findings have been made in this field, including some novel understandings about the heat transfer processes (reciprocity, symmetry, topological properties, etc.), as well as promising new possibilities to control heat (cloaking, rectification, collection, etc.). The text is organized into three segments: steady-state, ...

With increasing temperatures and an escalation in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, agricultural productivity remains at risk of being compromised. With the food security of millions threatened, there remains a need to develop alternative, sustainable production models which can thrive in the face of climate change.Advances in plant factories: New technologies in indoor vertical farming reviews the wealth of research on optimising plant...

This book provides a comprehensive exploration of plant functional traits and their critical role in understanding and predicting ecosystem functions in response to environmental changes. By bridging the gap between traditional ecological research and emerging macro-ecological technologies, this book offers an in-depth understanding of how functional traits at various levels, from organs to entire ecosystems, can be utilized to address complex ecological challenges, including global change...

This brief provides a valuable reference for the contribution of essential oils in the green chemistry, mainly in terms of their characteristics corresponding to their compositions, the development of their extraction technologies including both conventional and green process (e.g. microwave, ultrasound), and their sustainable applications as antioxidants, antimicrobials, insecticides, green solvents and synthons for the green synthesis.

There is an increasing tendency to integrate optical communication with wireless communication to satisfy continuously emerging (new) data communication demands. Thus, optical-wireless-integrated access networks and transmission systems, as well as LED-based visible light communication are attracting ever increasing research interest. Digital signal processing (DSP) is one new technology for optical transmission. As such this book is designed to pave the way to the better understanding of ...

Ecostacking is a new concept and approach which aims to maximize the benefits of ecosystem service providers in cropping systems to help achieve the goal of long-term sustainable agriculture and food production. The term "ecostacking" means combining synergistically the beneficial services of functional biodiversity from all levels and types. It is a comprehensive approach, where the various ecosystem service providers are fully integrated with the rest of the cropping system including agr...

The Academic Sabbatical: A Voyage of Discovery est un recueil de récits révélant l’importance des congés sabbatiques pour les membres du corps professoral et, par extension, pour l’enseignement supérieur.Au moyen des expériences et approches diversifiées que partagent ses collaborateurs, cet ouvrage fournit des arguments convaincants à l’effet que les congés sabbatiques universitaires augmentent la productivité sur les plans de la recherche et de la diffusion du savoir, devenues au...

A story of love, marriage, and flowers from beloved writer and gardening enthusiast Alysia Li Ying SawchynSix months before her wedding, Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn’s fiancé broke off their engagement. Stunned, reeling, and newly uninsured, Alysia married her friend Sarah in an arrangement that secured them both free health insurance. They moved in together in the midst of the pandemic, and with time and while tending a garden, their marriage of convenience grew into a ...

After surviving a childhood under the oppressive rule of Chairman Mao's "Cultural Revolution," a young, courageous teenager abandons her life in China for the freedom of the unknown in America.Arriving at the New York City doorstep of family members she's never met, Ying-Ying has been promised they'll help her learn English and accomplish her dream of attaining a college degree. But weeks later, she's kicked out without explanation. Now a homeless immigrant, Ying-Ying must learn wh...